Imagine the scene after the first midnight showing of “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince,” the sixth cinematic installment of J.K. Rowling’s magical bildungsroman. It’s nearly 3 a.m. on a Tuesday night, and the post-movie chatter goes something like this:
“The ending was terrible – totally made up,” opines a teen girl in a sexy British schoolgirl uniform.
“No explanation at all of what it means to be ‘the Chosen One’ – good thing we’ve all read the book,” a lightning-bolt branded twenty-something says indignantly.
His friend retorts, “If you haven’t read it you shouldn’t be here anyway.”
A few feet away, a man old enough to be their grandfather says, “Ron was a hoot. Slughorn, too – although not as fat as he should have been.”
Among the faithful a consensus emerged: “It was ridiculous how much they changed. I have a serious problem with that…. but I’d see it again, wouldn’t you?”
There’s been a two-year drought since the release of the final Harry Potter book (and the most recent film), and that magic-packed summer of 2007 seems as distant as our first trip down Diagon Alley [Ed.: geek speak]. Harry Potter fans have been thirsty for a dose of Hogwarts, re-reading the series in preparation for the long-awaited movie premier (the originally release date was Nov. 1, 2008).